If you want an honest opinion...

just ask Emily!

Yesterday, as I was putting food in the car to head to Ray's Mom and Dad's, Emily said,

"Are you embarrassed to wear your bathing suit?" I had one of my new ones on under my clothes. I thought she was asking if I was embarrassed that you could see the straps through my shirt so I said,

"No, I have clothes over my suit."

"No, I mean, are you glad you have a bathing suit that doesn't show your stomach?"

"Yeah, I guess. But your stomach sticks out of your bathing suit. "

"Yeah, but my stomach doesn't look like yours. I'd be embarrassed if I were you."

"Thanks Emily," I coldly responded.

"Well, no insult intended. I was just being honest," she plainly stated.

Yeah, thanks for the heaping dose of reality. Maybe she was the universe's way of saying "STOP! YOU SHOULDN'T BE WEARING THAT IN PUBLIC!!" ;-) So...maybe I'll take that advice!

Holiday Weekend

Our weekend started on Saturday with a trip to Aunt Vickie's house for Aaron's 2nd birthday party. There, the kids enjoyed a Bonzai slide, some snacks, and cupcakes.

Unfortunately, Lauren enjoyed a busted nose thanks to her dog Riley.

Mya was so cute around the slide...I will have more pictures of her to share in a separate post.

My mission this summer is to get some cute shots of Emily...she's a tough one.

Hannah is easy because she is such a ham...

Aaron was asleep for most of his party, and right after he woke up, the battery in my camera died...

Later that evening, Ray jumped up off the porch and started throwing all kinds of stuff into the back of the pick-up truck. I had no idea where we were going until we showed up at the Drive-In.

For $27 my family of four enjoyed unlimited snacks (we brought them in ourselves) and 3 1st run movies: Shrek, RobinHood, and Iron Man. We didn't get home until 4:30 a.m., but it was a great night under the stars!

On Sunday, we went to the Durbin's where we swam

and roasted marshmallows.

And today, we are heading back to the Durbin's for more time in the sun.

Hope you all had an ejoyable start to the summer!

Thicker Skin

That's what a colleague of mine told me I needed to get. She said this after she made a derrogatory comment about my teaching (her exact words were, "Do you want me to tell you what kind of a teacher I think you are?"). We disagree on the way one of our classes should be taught, and that's the comment she resorted to when I pointed out that the curriculum doesn't state how far I should get in regard to time periods in American Literature. When she realized that she hurt my feelings she told me I needed to get thicker skin.

Why? So that people like her can say mean, hurtful things and get away with it?

It does make me mad that I let people have that kind of power over my emotions. After she made that comment, I walked to my classroom and just stood there for a while feeling defeated. I couldn't figure out why, but then it dawned on me: Ray is the same way. He will say or do something that hurts my feelings and will then tell me that I should just get over it. He never says he's sorry nor does he ever try to make the situation better.

So, after basically being told that I suck as a teacher (I'm pretty sure she feels superior to me), I came home to a house with a husband who basically told me that I suck as a wife.

Some days, it's more than I can handle. When he started in on me, I just left. I went shopping, but my sour mood followed me there, and every time I looked at myself in the mirror, all I saw were my flaws and I bought nothing.

So now I feel worse. I should be excited. There are only 2 days left with the kids, and I have been waiting for this week since the first day of school. But, I have given my power away to two people who have abused it.

I wish I could figure out how to take it back.

Beach babes

After helping Ray cut the grass today, we thought it might be good to cool off at Ray's Mom and Dad's pool. We rushed to Wal-Mart to buy the girls some swimsuits, grabbed some lunch at Wendy's, and were on 275 by the Montgomery exit when we got the call from his mom that they weren't home and the pool wouldn't be ready for a couple of days.

So, we turned around and decided to head to East Fork. But, the part of the beach that we went to, was closed. Again, we turned around and headed to the other beach where we finally found reprieve from the hot weather.

The water was a bit chilly, but Emily didn't seem to mind as she took to the water like a fish.

They also spent some time playing in the "sand" (aka dirt that was wet).

We only spent a couple of hours there, but it was relaxing and enjoyable.

Oh, did I mention that I did it...I wore my bikini out in public??? Yeah. HUGE step for me. It was very unnerving, really, having so much skin exposed, but I didn't have any other suit available, and I figured I just needed to go for it.

I'm thinking I MIGHT do it again!

Jo's 30th Birthday at Dave and Buster's

Last night, after Emily's soccer game, we hooked up with the Heckle family to celebrate Jo Ann's 30th birthday at Dave and Buster's.

We played games (of course)...

and had lots of fun (see Emily's smile...I love that smile)

and hung out (briefly) with family. (I tried to get pictures of Vickie and her kids, but she was long gone before I knew it)

Ray and I split up our duties with the kids--he hung with Hannah, and I followed Emily as she ran from game to game. We did stop and play a session of Guitar Hero...of course, I won...

(I think I need to learn to smile more...especially when I know someone has my camera...)

We stopped to take a self-portrait...

And then continued to play more games...

Hannah liked this game of catching falling apples because she could get up to 16 tickets at a time.

Emily decided to play this game where a light spins around the numbers and you have to time hitting the stop button just right, trying to land on "bonus." Wouldn't you know it, but Emily landed on "bonus" the very first time she played this game. She won 300 tickets at once.

We finally left around 10:30'ish after the girls cashed in their tickets and picked their prizes. They were pooped when we got home, but they did have a good time and can't wait to go again.

Operation "Dog"

This is Ray (obviously) after his surgery to rid him of his hernia (if that's how you spell it).

He was a bit scared before going in, but he pulled through and will make a complete recovery.

The last time Ray had surgery, I hit him up for a new house while he was drugged. This time, I'm hitting him up for a dog.

I was doing just that when I took this picture! ;-
Commence Operation "Dog."

If you give Hannah a camera...

She will evidently take lots of pictures of

HERSELF!

There were several more pictures just like these, but I deleted them.

How about a close-up of her eye?

And her headband?

Oh, and don't forget the hair! (She even said to me the other day, "I really love my hair, Mom. I love the color, the length, how straight it is, and how it feels!")

She even took pictures of her knees...

She did manage to get some shots of other people like Ray



And myself

And she did take this picture so we would remember where we were that day



And she did try to get some pictures of Patrick

But then her focus would return to herself and the things she held like this noise maker

I kinda like giving them my cameras once in a while because it always makes me laugh when I upload their pictures and see what they thought was picture-worthy. I guess Hannah considers herself VERY picture worthy!